Colombian Juan-Pablo Montoya, affectionately known to his fans as “The Monster”, has extended his contract with Williams BMW until the end of the 2004 season.
Colombian Juan-Pablo Montoya, affectionately known to his fans as “The Monster”, has extended his contract with Williams BMW until the end of the 2004 season.
The deal is seen as a watershed in the Colombian F1’s career. In his first two seasons in the sport, Montoya has won only one grand prix and created much controversy.
Montoya has demonstrated on several occasions that he has the talent to match the pace of five-time world champion Michael Schumacher. But the Colombian has been criticised for his aggressive and often uncompromising driving tactics.
But on Thursday, the Colombian said he believed the Williams BMW team had the potential to fulfil his ambition of winning the world title.
"I have no doubt that both WilliamsF1 and BMW are completely determined, and have the will to win a championship title," said Montoya. "It is for these reasons that I am delighted to be racing with the team."
"Juan is an outstanding talent and we are all delighted that the team will stay together for the next two seasons,” team boss Frank Williams said. “Both his natural resource of skill and the continuity that this agreement offers will provide a considerable impetus for the team to build a championship challenge in 2003 and 2004."
Earlier this week, McLaren Mercedes driver David Coulthard said that Montoya’s inferred status as heir-apparent to Michael Schumacher was misplaced. He said Montoya had talent, but lacked the composure and temperament to dominate Formula One.
"There’s all this hype about Montoya… the guy is very quick and I think his qualifying earlier in the year showed that," the Scot said. “But whenever it comes to wheel-to-wheel racing, there’s always an incident.
"In Hungary, Kimi Raikkonen (Coulthard’s team-mate) launched a fantastic passing manoeuvre at him and what did Montoya do? He threw himself off the circuit because he’s got this inability to just accept that he’s been passed.
“Sometimes you’ve got to just give up your position,” Coulthard added. "People say that Montoya has big balls, but maybe it’s a case of big balls and a small brain.”
In response, Montoya said that from the beginning of 2003 season he would focus solely on winning the championship. But such a feat would require a tremendous team effort on the part of Williams BMW, he added.
“I think, to be honest, in Formula One you need to be very strong mentally. I think that everyone who gets into Formula One has got the speed, got the talent to be in it, and how mentally strong you are can make a big difference,” Montoya said on the BMW website.
“F1 is probably one of the most demanding sports – if not the most demanding sport. If you’re swimming, then the strongest swimmer is going to win, here it takes a team, there’s engine, car, tyres, and behind that 700 people working on the cars, building, creating the cars…
I think (being) world champion is a big deal, I don’t really think about it. If some day I am world champion then that will be brilliant. If I am not, then hey, these things happen," he said.
